How I demonstrate that far from being a master of patience, I have a short attention span and am attracted to try out lots of fabric related techniques and ideas

Tuesday, 20 October 2009

Why did I choose it?

Eileen, over at 'Quilting Together' is making a Christmas sampler quilt to be raffled in aid of the Leicestershire and Rutland Air Ambulance. I'm always happy to help with a charitable project, so volunteered to make a block for her. I had Carol Doak's '50 Fabulous Paper-Pieced Stars' as a present last year, so decided one of those would be perfect for the job.

What a mistake. First I had to go down to the copy shop and get four copies of the pattern (quicker and more accurate than tracing my own, I decided). Next I had to paper piece 8, yes eight, sections, which were all the same. This took me a while, as there was a certain amount of reverse sewing involved here! Then, when I'd joined all the sections together, I had to pick the blooming paper off the back! I hope Eileen's not one of those 'I use tweezers to get all the little bits of paper off' types, as I'm a 'the little bits of paper will add extra warmth to the finished quilt' type! Anyone want to buy a practically new copy of Carol Doak's '50 Fabulous Paper-Pieced Stars'?!

9 comments:

i dont mind doing paper piecing in small doses...like one square for a quilt of many different types...but to imagine doing an entire quilt like that....ugh! Pulling the paper off is the worst...i dont know how folks can sew an entire quilt in this style...but the results are beautiful.

I agree with Gina - I like pulling out the paper, just like I like unpicking things (nearly wrote 'unpickling' there... must be the time of night). Very theraputic. If you want to post anything down to London, I'm your girl.

I've only done one major paper pieced project and that convinced me to avoid that technique in the future. The results are really wonderful with sharp points and all, but I had a real tough time keeping my brain working upside down and backwards. And those little bits of paper got quilted into the finished quilt. I just figure it gives it an added bit of stability. I must say your block is stunning.